Although alternative rock evolved as a fight back against both the cliche of the much tried and tested classic rock sound and the genre’s lighter and more disposable mainstream offerings, it, like any other genre or style, has to move with the times. This means that the alt-rock of its formative years, which are thirty years or so ago, is probably drastically different from what it sounds like today.
And if you want a snapshot of where the genre is at in 2024, then you would do a lot worse than give “Hey,” the new one from Points, a spin. It is still built on the core principles of all rock music—that blend of muscle and melody, the play-off between groove and grit—but it manages to go beyond those basic requirements too—way beyond.
“Hey” borrows robust indie riffs and then buries them in waves of shoegaze-infused squalls of guitar. The song is certainly big, but it makes its presence felt without resorting to such obvious moves as just volume or velocity. Instead, it opts for something more imposing, cavernous, slower, deliberate, and threatening. But it does all of this while remaining accessible and infectious. It’s a conundrum, a brilliant conundrum!
That’s a lot to fit into one track, but by doing so Points speak volumes about the changing nature of alternative rock and where it is at today. Maybe this is alt-alt-rock! Perhaps this is the ground zero of the next movement in rock and roll. That sounds like the logical next move to me, and when it happens, Points will be the first ones storming the sonic barricades of familiarity and expectation. Actually, they are doing that already.
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